DOD 250 GREY SPEC MODS

[Steve Mavronis]

This is my first post here and I see there are a few who used to be on the old official Yngwie Malmsteen forum and I was one of the 3 moderators while it was online so hello! I was reading this thread earlier today and I'm intrigued with the design of this coveted pedal. I have a YJM308 pedal and have been wanting to mod it to grey 250 specs with the 741 op amp chip to make it less noisey and less treble based for a smoother creamy overdrive tone. I found DIY instructions posted on another forum explaining what to do and what parts I need to change out. Tonight I was talking to my dad who works as an electronics engineer and says he can get me a 741 op amp. Yet I also emailed Outlier (John) to inquire about his YJM308 mod work since he is highly recommended by Yngwie308 and others. I hope that is okay to mention because I'm interested too! I was also wondering if there is a source to get a metal stompbox enclosure that is close to the dimensions of the DOD 250 and YJM308. I'm just looking into all the possiblities.

Play Loud!

[outlier]

You can definitely get enclosures that are close in dimension. Try calling Mouser and get one of their catalogs.

Also, you can try the following links:

http://www.effectsconnection.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.pedalpartsplus.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Steve Mavronis]

Thanks John, mouser.com has quite a large selection of box sizes but I couldn't find a close enough match. I'll have to check around to see if there is close to the same size box as the YJM308 uses, which is aproximately 4.6" L x 2.6" W x 1.4" H.

The closest I've found so far is this 125B Enclosure (4.625" L x 2.5" W x 1.5" H) for $6 from Pedal Parts Plus:

http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merch ... ode=ENC125" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Analog]

You might want to start by replacing that 15w SS Marshall with a 50w Metro and a 4 x 12.
Then worry about the pedals, maybe.....

[Steve Mavronis]

You might want to start by replacing that 15w SS Marshall with a 50w Metro and a 4 x 12. Then worry about the pedals, maybe?

A 50W tube amp is too loud for me. I'm a row house living room couch player/hobbyist at keeping it down to bedroom volume levels. Anyway pedals do work on SS amps, just not as well as what they can do with tubes. Some of the overdrive tonal effect (smooth distortion, w/rounded clipping?) is created from the pedal before it even hits the amp.

I can hear the effect/tone coming from my stock YJM308 using my amp's clean channel. Yngwie Malmsteen himself uses his YJM308/DOD250 with older series Marshall MG15DFX and MG30DFX practice amps. He wouldn't use them that way if it didn't give him the desired effect.

Anyway some day I do hope to have a low wattage tube amp like the 5 watt Marshall Class5 or some kit version from here, so if I either get my YJM308 modded or build my own it would still be a good investment for the future and something neat to add to my Yngwie collection at the same time.

[Steve Mavronis]

DOD has discontinued the 250 and 308 pedals it seems. If this is in fact true, then I'm thinking that those (DOD) guy's have been aware of the craze of making these less than original sounding pedals......original. I bet they FINALLY release the GREY version. If they do though, I bet it still wont be 100 % there, but at least the enclosure will be .

I wish there was a way besides buying another $30 YJM308 to get empty DOD enclosures. That would be great for those wanting to make any DOD pedal "replica" clone instead of having to get generic enclosures that are off a 1/10th of an inch in 2 out of 3 dimensions and don't have the recognizable DOD "hump" on top. The only choice is to gut your DOD 250 reissue or YJM308 and insert your custom hand built circuit board inside, or shape your own wooden enclosure to look like the DOD box, or even go to the extreme and cast your own if you are into metallurgy!

[outlier]

I would never be bothered by such a thing, but that's just me...

[Steve Mavronis]

I would never be bothered by such a thing, but that's just me...

Yeah that's just me in fantasy mode! But back to reality that's where you come in when people send you their re-issue DOD 250 and YJM308 pedals for mods taking them back to grey 250 specs.

BTW, how similar are the re-issue DOD 250 and YJM308 circuit boards? Are they using the same PCB trace layout but with some different components? I'm mapping out a graphical illustration of the YJM308 stock circuit board by examining the one I have and was wondering.

[outlier]

The circuit cards are the same. The old yellow 250 cards are different though.

I know I've said this before, but the first time I'd heard a grey 250 so many years ago, I didn't like it! Mustn't have been one of the "good" ones...

[JamesHealey]

If you still own it in 6 months time and still use it regularly i'll buy one myself, but until then I'll hold out.. honey moon period n all that etc.

[froman57]

Hi yngwie308!
Just joint today and while I was trying to send you a Private mail, I kept getting the message:
"We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more to be able to use this feature".

Interested in contacting your friend John to mod my yjm308 pedal. Could you contact me?

Anyone one else thats reading this post, please advice yngwie308 that Im trying to get a hold of him since this is an on going thread and he may miss it...

Thanks in advance for your help!
F.Roman57
Delaware

[froman57]

To anyone who read my previous post and responded, thank you!
I've been contacted by yngwie308 and I no longer neeed anyone to contact him.

Thank you for helping out.
Fromna57

[wishmaster]

Hi yngwie308,
I also want John can mod my yjm308, and I have send the email to John. But there is no reply till now.
The email address I have tried as below:
yjm308mods@hotmail.com
outlier1864@yahoo.com
Can you help me to contact Mr.John?

Thanks and Best regards,
Leon

[moriano]

Hey all, first post here! I registered for this forum some time ago, but for one reason or another, just lurked and hadn't posted anything until now.

David, geez, thanks for the compliments! You have no idea how reading stuff like this really makes my day. As I wrote on the Yngwie board, I sent the pedal out with my fingers crossed hoping you'd like it and hoping you'd hear the same thing I was hearing.

About the mod: This all started as something just for fun and was the culmination of a lot of research that a good friend in New Zealand and I did into the early history and circuitry of the 250.

There's more to this than just finding a schematic and blueprinting the pedal to that. I don't have to tell any of you on this forum how official schematics aren't always reflected in an amplifier's actual circuit.

So what I came to understand is that the particularly good sounding 250s shared certain aspects not shown on schematics.

The centerpiece of my modification is based on out-of-production parts that I have one source for. I have a decent, but limited supply and I suspect that when they're gone, that very well may be it...

I also improve the quality of components in the audio path. As part of what was just hobbyist tinkering, I originally rebuilt two 308s from the ground up, replaced everything including jacks, footswitch, etc.

What I came to notice is that one of the rebuilt 308s that had the 308 spec .001 input cap didn't sound tremendously different from the other 308 with the 250 spec .01 input cap.

This was really interesting to me and got me to thinking that maybe some of the charcteristic raspiness associated with the 308 wasn't just due to the use of the .001 input cap, but also the cheaper quality of the parts.

A while back I got a PM from former Yngwie manager Mike Spitzer and he told me that the .001 cap was installed as Yngwie wanted a slightly tighter low end on rhythms. With the rebuilt 308, it did just that: A little tighter on the low end, but a lot closer to the 250 in many respects.

This also got me to thinking that the 308 was probably bread-boarded with quality components, but the production version ... well, whaddaya expect for $30.00?

I do use the same chip as Analogman, the LM741CN. It's spot-on to what I was hearing in my head, but I've also used 1970s-era Texas Instruments Made In Malaysia 741 chips as per some 250s and like that too. Just cleaned out of 'em though, so if anyone knows where I can get some, let me know!

I could also use TI 1458s, which are basically the same thing as many of you surely know, the difference being that they are dual opamps. I bought some of these and have experimented with them. With my Strats, it's a bit more of a Blackmore-ish type tone with these. Very cool.

As far as copying my mods are concerned, I began to notice that there were some sellers on eBay selling modified 308s with not only the mods that I detailed on the defunct Yngwie board, but including text that was practically copied and pasted from my descriptions!

But there's one big difference and that is this: They don't have the OOP parts that I do and that is crucial to getting this sound from the pedal.

Why don't I build clones? Maybe I will someday, but as I wrote, this all just started out as something fun to tinker with, not as some business venture. The friend in NZ talked his up as did a guitarist in Serbia I rebuilt a 308 for and it took off from there.

I suppose if there's enough interest, I may build some clones. I'd like to look into having cards etched, so we'll see... Maybe!

John!! Hey Rikk Morosini here trying to get ahold of you.
PM me so we can chat about a friend that wants a Grey Mod YJM, AND I wanted to chat about the pin switch I see on the Splawn forum that you added to your grey mod design, might want you to update it dude!!
Look forward to hearing from ya dude!!! Email me asap!! Thanks.
Rikk

[kgp1]

My first post. Does anyone know how to contact Outlier? I would like to purchase a modded YJM308. Thank you.